


Port Out/Starboard Home

by rabidsamfan



Series: 100 Words to Baker Street [22]
Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Drabble Sequence, F/M, John "Three Continents" Watson, Watson's Woes July Writing Prompts 2013, internet research
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-03
Updated: 2013-07-03
Packaged: 2018-06-04 03:09:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6638845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rabidsamfan/pseuds/rabidsamfan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rudyard Kipling once said "If you truly wish to find someone you have known and who travels, there are two points on the globe you have but to sit and wait, sooner or later your man will come there: the docks of London and Port Said".</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Port Out

They don’t always venture into the streets of Gemalia, the men from the ships that wait their turn for de Lesseps’s Canal, but he did that day, thanks be to Allah, so young and so new to the English Army that his ears were bright from the Mediterranean sun. I watched him from behind my veil as the workmen hastily removed the scaffolding that had collapsed, preferring the sight of golden hair and kind blue eyes to the blood that ran over my fingers and my brother’s anguished tears. He saved us, and earned forever the hospitality of our house.


	2. Starboard Home

Father found him on the _Orontes_ , and brought him home to be fed properly, and given a night of rest from his travels. I was glad for my veil, that he could not see my surprise at how brown and thin and worn he had grown. Such is the price of war! He moved like an old man, so close had death come, as if he’d forgotten he was young. I was older too, but I had not forgotten, and in the night I went to him, to remind him of what he was. Thanks be to Allah, he remembered.

**Author's Note:**

> For Watson's Woes prompt: 3 Continents. Gemalia is the name of the old native quarter of Port Said.
> 
> Originally published at the [Watson's Woes LJ Community.](http://watsons-woes.livejournal.com/860829.html) Posted here with minor revisions.


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